A New Bit of Feminist Newspeak

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For years the feminists have been using the term 'misogyny' as a piece of cheap silencing and shaming rhetoric. They have chosen to brand anyone who disagrees with them as a 'misogynist', whether or not the individual in question has any animosity towards women. They have basically been just saying "Prove you don't hate women by agreeing with me." or "You don't have to listen to such and such, he has these secret dark motives.".

Like a lot of cheap rhetoric it has eventually become transparent, and now once the term is thrown out the person using it is rightfully dismissed. They have come to realize that this was a bad ploy.

There are several possible responses to this.

They could have simply admitted to what they were up to, apologized and moved on. This would be honorable.

They could have simply ceased to doing it. People would have eventually forgotton it. Sometimes just letting overly harsh words used in an argument go is the best way to move forward. This would be respectable.

Instead of taking the honorable or respectable routs they chose the Orwellian. Suddenly, 'misogyny' has a new meaning. Instead of its historical and current common usage as "hatred of women". They are now claiming that it means a preference for men in various aspects of life such as political power, employment and family decision making. And yet, there is already a term for this, "male chauvinism". They abandoned this term because it didn't pathologize dissenters enough. They dialed the rhetoric up and adopted 'misogyny'. Now that it has bitten them on the ass they are trying to shoe-horn the definition of "male chauvinism" into 'misogyny' and trying to claim that is what they meant all along.

They'll probably get away with it. Now, when someone points out that some feminist accused a dissenter of hating women, no matter how long ago it was, she will claim that she meant 'misogyny' with this new definition, and people will let it slide.

Edit: I forgot to mention Surly Amy's Skpechick series "Speaking Out Against Hate Directed at Women:"whoever posts. Is she now going to try to claim that "hate" doesn't really mean "hate"?